Moscow & St. Petersburg

Honestly, I have really run out of blogging steam. I will try to write a bit more when I get home, but I would kind of rather just show everyone pictures and tell everyone stories individually. At this point, too much has happened for me to feel like I have successfully captured it by blogging.

I am finally back in a place that more or less resembles the United States. I am not actually that relieved and I am not sure that I like the big cities as much as I liked Siberia, but they are still really interesting. I loved Moscow because it reminded me of New York. It was big and weird and beautiful. St. Petersburg is also nice, but I was already biased against it before I got here. Everyone who has visited tells me how much better Petersburg is than Moscow, which made me root for Moscow because it was the underdog. Then, as I understand it, St. Petersburg is to Moscow is like San Francisco is to Los Angeles. I am personally an LA person and hate San Francisco. St. Petersburg also seems a lot like Venice, which was my lease favorite Italian city. I just don't think cities are supposed to be calm, orderly and beautiful.

Anyway, we took a very unpleasant 1AM to 6AM tour of the setting of The Master and Margarita. It would have been amazing, but it was raining and there was a freezing cold wind. The Bulgakov museum was very cool though and hopefully tomorrow I will be going to the Dostoevsky museum in St. Petersburg. I am going to meet my friend Yuliya's brother, who lives here, which should be really fun.

The hostels have actually been amazing, even though I was kind of scared of them before coming. It was a great way to meet people and they felt really safe and comfortable. In fact, the first hostel was a lot nicer than some hotels I have stayed in even though the rooms were communal.

I am really looking forward to going back to New York. My roommates for next year, Tom, found an apartment for us in Manhattan. The location and the price are really amazing and I will be living right by Central Park.

Here are a few pictures from Siberia and hopefully I will have the energy to upload more later:

1. Just a nice picture of a Siberian village.

2. This is so totally the Russian Andy Sandberg it is scary.

3. Karina taught me how to make this delicious things called Gruzinchiki.

4. Me and Johnny Poops (that is what we eventually decided to call him).

5. Brett and I made Huevos Rancheros for Karina. They actually tasted good, but not entirely like Huevos Rancheros.